Apart from the fact that I smelt like piss, a burn scar ran across the dark brown skin of my chest, it was healing, but slowly as every movement I took that caused friction between my skin and my soiled shirt left me with such pain I almost passed out.
Asare led me by the hand outside of my cell, and for the first time since I could remember I was standing outside of it. I was scared, terrified. My cell was the only source of solitude I have ever known, and the very idea of what lay beyond scared me to great lengths.
I stopped moving. For the first time I heard my heart beating, it was slower than what would be expected of a normal person. But it did not change the fact that I was frightened.
I felt Asare put his hands on my shoulders and I flinched. I was angry with him, I was angry that he did not do anything to stop Adein from humiliating me yesterday. I knew it was not his fault though, even though Asare and I might have had a master servant relationship from a past I couldn't remember I knew he did not have a choice.
But my anger at him was the only thing I could focus on right now to keep my fear at bay. I felt him put more pressure on my shoulder in an attempt to make me move, but I resolutely stood my ground refusing to move a single itch.
Asare may be stronger than expected, but I was still a vampire, and it would take a little more than that to move and he knew it.
"I am sorry" I heard him say
"what for?" I asked him in an emotionless tone.
"for yesterday, I am sorry I could not protect you from Adein, but my position is important if we are both going to stay alive here."
I shook my head and let out a sigh of defeat. I wanted to be angry, I really do, but I felt it was too childish and unfair. With a boss like Adein The Lover I doubted he could do much.
"why do they call him Adein the lover"
I asked as I took the first step forward.
"believe me Kael you don't want to know"
he replied.
We were walking down a hall with metal gates on both sides. Rows upon rows of empty cells, some of them had bones, bleached white by time while others had rotten corpses that somehow could keep the smell from escaping, and most of the cells were filled with people, and recognized them, or to be more accurate what they were immediately...Vampires. Hundreds of them, and each of them in a worse state than the other.
It was a harrowing experience for me, I could see vampire children with missing limbs, some of them were hung suspended from chains above their cells in a grotesque display of malevolence. My heart ached.
As we moved I noticed symbols and tattoos like the same on my hand painted on the walls and the steel bars, not all of them were moving, but some moved just like my own.
"Asare what is that?"
I asked, pointing to the symbols as best as I could with my manacled hands.
"those are seals."
He replied, as if that was supposed to automatically make sense.
"what are seals?" I asked again.
"seals are the language of the WAY"
but this time he had learnt his lesson so he continued the conversation.
"seals have extraordinary properties, they give the power to affect reality in ways the arcane art can not. Like the one on your wrist, it is called a blocker and it prevents you from accessing the WAY."
I was confused. So I kept on asking.
"what do you mean by accessing the WAY, I thought that it split itself years ago and was not seen anymore."
Asare looked at me like I had grown a second head before he sighed and continued.
"I forgot the book does not have recent history from after the Dark elves rebelled and became a matriarchy. The WAY, also known in recent years as the system, is a supernatural scroll of power that gives a detailed analysis of your powers, abilities and capabilities. It's different for every one, as the WAY presents it self differently to each individual. You however and every single one of the five and the half million vampire prisoners in this place have a blocker to prevent you from gaining access to the WAY. You are all helpless, so the only thing you can do is survive."
The system sounded like something of great wonder and power, the fact that the loss of it has made me and almost six million other people prisoners only showed how much of an importance it carried. I looked at my wrist in wonder and thought about how this tattoo had turned out to be another thing that I would be bound to hate.
We eventually walked out of the hall way, and into a vast cavern that had a network of caves each labelled differently. Some said mining area, another said residence, the tunnel from which I just came from read solitary.
"This is the cross roads, the absolute center of the entire prison. All this different caves leads to different sectors of the mine, so you shouldn't get lost. But there are some places you would not be allowed into, after all you are a prisoner."
As we moved towards a cave marked vampire residence, I could hear loud grinding sounds of rocks scraping against each other, and right before my eyes I saw the caves move and change positions. I stopped moving in surprise, before the sight of people coming out from different parts of the caves shook me out of stupor.
I saw people with pale skin and red eyes, some of them even had blue eyes or golden eyes. However their skin color though pale was of numerous variety.
There were dark skinned people like me, then there were pale skined like Asare, and then blue, green, even someone with purple skin and elongated ears. They were all vampires, but somehow they all came from different races. There were a lot of them here, and they all carried baskets or pushed carts, even the children were not spared from labor.
The people were haggard looking and covered in dust. Some of them were so lean and emancipated that I felt a little gust of wind would be enough to blow them away.
And right behind them, in guard uniforms and looking ferocious were massive bipedal wolves. With their human like structure I knew right away that this new addition are werewolves. Humanities very own guard dogs.
As Asare led me towards the now stable cave, a lot if not almost the entire group of vampires were looking at me, a lot of them even bowed and I could not even understand the reason for it. I bowed back, and it was as if I sent a ripple through their ranks.
A lot of them began smiling and even a few of them cheered. I turned to ask Asare why they were all looking at me as if I was some messiah who could walk on water, though I could not see why a messiah would need to walk on water, (weird.)
But Asare had gone pale, it was as if he had seen a ghost. He pushed me forward, his steps more hurried than before as we went through the cave marked vampire residence. We came up into a system of tunnels that split in five different directions, we took the one at the extreme left and began to make our way down into the darkness.
It was right about now that I noticed seals, like the one binding me were written all over the walls of the tunnel, and they provided a bright yellow glow that served as the illumination for the tunnels. We walked for what was most probably two hours or even more, before we came to another cavern.
This one however stretched as far as my eye could see, all the way to the horizon. And its landscape was dotted with massive and wide pillar like structures that stretched to the very top of the cavern ceiling which even with my enhanced vision I had to stretch my eyes to see. Then I heard Asare speak.
"This prison is called the dancing caves of Noxis Nyx. And this place would be your home for the next foreseeable future. This cavern however has a different name. Lord Kael.....welcome to the pit.